Two week’s after CM Punk’s monumental promo that shook the entire wrestling world, RAW hasn’t been able to make their entire show nearly as enjoyable. While they continue to develop the Punk angle, they delivered filler on every other front.
In the end, last night featured a handful of meaningless promo and matches that were supposed to set up the Money n the Bank pay per view this Sunday.
It did not succeed.
All it did was repeat the same vignettes shown on Smackdown and tease the pay per view, but failed to provide enough exciting content to make RAW an intriguing show.
It didn’t start that way though. CM Punk made sure RAW started with a bang last night, as he shot a promo that got the crowd buzzing. Not only did he say he’d beat John Cena for the title, he also said he’d redesign the belt. If that wasn’t enough, he asked Vince McMahon to have live contract negotiations.
Usually, it’s a disaster when RAW opens up with a promo, but this time, it worked well. It got the crowd into the show and with Cena in a match right after, night got off on the right foot.
If only it stayed that way.
The end of the show, which had McMahon and Punk conduct a live contract negotiation, was interesting as well. While it took entirely too long to set up, the confrontation between these two was something that has never been done in wrestling. Punk did some more shooting, hitting everything from Triple H’s recent film to The Rock and the firings of Colt Cabana and Luke Gallows.
To see the creative team at least try something new is a testament to them willing to get the sport out of its current mediocrity. Sure, it wasn’t as good as his first promo, but it picked up towards the end and proved Punk is one of the best on the mic in the sport today.
In spite of this, the rest of the show was rather boring. Although they continued to develop the Money in the Bank match for the PPV, the six-man tag match was inane. The same thing goes for the Divas segment, which was generic and didn’t add any more heat to an already ice-cold angle.
As of right now, The United States championship will not be defended and neither will the tag team titles. Because of this, aside from the Punk/Cena confrontation, there doesn’t seem t be much of a reason to check out Sunday’s Money in the Bank pay per view.
Matches:
John Cena vs. David Otunga and Mike McGillicutty: A match that saw Cena deliver a top rope rocker dropper in addition to his normal assortment of moves on his way to single-handily defeating the WWE tag team champs. Has there ever been a more dismal moment in WWE’s tag team division?
Kelly Kelly vs. Melina: Kelly beat a new and not improved Melina, who looked like a clone of the late-Sherry Martel, with a rocker dropper. Aside from that, this match was routine. After the match, the Bella twins attacked Kelly, who was aided by Eve Torrez. However, the twins were a step ahead and took care of both of them.
The Miz, Jack Swagger and R-Truth vs. Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston and Alex Riley: A decent match that was ruined by two commercial breaks. It was your standard six-man tag with the heels taking it to the faces, with hot tags coming in at all the right times. The end of the match was better put together, which saw Alberto Del Rio hit the ring and take out a few of the competitors. Overall, however, it was nothing special.
Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler w/ Vicki Guerrero vs. The Big Show: Show ended up destroying McIntyre on the entrance ramp in a tune-up match before he takes on Mark Henry on Sunday. Ironically, Henry hit Show and Swagger and all three went off the stage.
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